The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Europe kicks off bid to find a route to ‘better’ gig work
The European Union has kicked off the first stage of a consultation process involving gig platforms and workers. Regional lawmakers have said they want to improve working conditions for people who pro
Mozilla beefs up anti-cross-site tracking in Firefox, as Chrome still lags on privacy
Mozilla has further beefed up anti-tracking measures in its Firefox browser. In a blog post yesterday it announced that Firefox 86 has an extra layer of anti-cookie tracking built into the enhanced tr
Spain’s ten-year plan to put startups in the economic driving seat
Spain is preparing to push forward with pro-startup legislation, having recently unveiled a big and bold transformation plan with the headline goal, by 2030, of turning the country into ‘Spain E
Uber loses gig workers rights challenge in UK Supreme Court
Uber has lost a long-running employment tribunal challenge in the U.K.’s Supreme Court — with the court dismissing the ride-hailing giant’s appeal and reaffirming earlier rulings tha
Facebook applies overly broad content block in flex against Australia’s planned news reuse law
Outrage fast-followed Facebook’s announcement yesterday that it was making good on its threat to block Australian users’ ability to share news on its platform. The tech giant’s inte
Facebook knew for years ad reach estimates were based on ‘wrong data’ but blocked fixes over revenue impact, per court filing
Some more internal emails Facebook really doesn’t want you to see: Turns out in 2017 COO Sheryl Sandberg had already known for years there were problems with a free ad planning tool the company
Uber could give gig workers a better deal but it’s lobbying EU to lower standards, says Fairwork
Uber has been accused of downplaying its influence over working conditions in the gig economy after the ride-hailing giant published a white paper earlier this week in which it lobbied for a ‘Pr
Facebook fined again in Italy for misleading users over what it does with their data
Facebook has been fined again by Italy’s competition authority — this time the penalty is €7 million (~$8.4M) — for failing to comply with an earlier order related to how it inform
Epic Games takes its Apple App Store fight to Europe
Epic Games has taken its fight against Apple’s App Store rules to the European Union, where it’s lodged a complaint with the bloc’s antitrust regulators. In a blog post today the mak
TikTok hit with consumer, child safety and privacy complaints in Europe
TikTok is facing a fresh round of regulatory complaints in Europe where consumer protection groups have filed a series of coordinated complaints alleging multiple breaches of EU law. The European Cons
Jigsaw scores $3.7M to slow down your dating swipes
Chalk one up for Jigsaw, an “anti-superficial” dating app that has scored £2.7 million ($3.7 million) in seed funding to put toward U.S. expansion. The round is led by a lead generation c
Google slapped in France over misleading hotel star ratings
Google has agreed to pay a €1.1 million fine over misleading star ratings for hotels in France. The tech giant had been applying its own (algorithmic) system of ratings for hotels applied via its se
Uber lobbies for ‘Prop 22’-style gig work standards in the EU
Uber is shooting its shot at EU lawmakers as they dial up scrutiny of working conditions on gig platforms to decide whether new rules are needed to improve the lot of gig workers. The ride-hailing and
Sweden’s data watchdog slaps police for unlawful use of Clearview AI
Sweden’s data protection authority, the IMY, has fined the local police authority €250,000 ($300,000+) for unlawful use of the controversial facial recognition software Clearview AI, in breach
EU’s top privacy regulator urges ban on surveillance-based ad targeting
The European Union’s lead data protection supervisor has recommended that a ban on targeted advertising based on tracking internet users’ digital activity be included in a major reform of
Collective launches a SaaS marketplace for freelancer teams
Freelancers who work well together in teams are the target for Collective, a French startup that’s launching a software-as-a-service marketplace today. (Not to be confused with Collective, a US-
Sharify makes it super simple to rediscover your city’s social side
The pandemic has upended many aspects of urban life but perhaps the most visible upheaval is to citydwellers’ social lives, with curfews calling time on traditional night life across much of the
EU’s lead data supervisor for most of big tech is still using Lotus Notes
The lead data supervisor for a slew of tech giants in the European Union, including Apple, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok and Twitter, is still relying on Lotus Notes to manage complaints and inve
‘Orwellian’ AI lie detector project challenged in EU court
A legal challenge was heard today in Europe’s Court of Justice in relation to a controversial EU-funded research project using artificial intelligence for facial “lie detection” with
Aflorithmic nabs $1.3M for AI-driven personalized audio-as-a-service
London and Barcelona based audio-as-a-service SaaS startup Aflorithmic has scooped up $1.3 million in seed funding from Crowd Media Holdings, an Australia-based company focused on influencer-based